When a person falls victim to a cardiopulmonary crisis, it is quite likely that trained cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) providers are scarce. Ideally, a nearby person would know CPR and would help the victim. However, in most cases no trained individual is available. Even when a trained provider is available, there is no guarantee the treatment they provide is effective.
CPR requires repeated chest compressions that have to be done correctly to ensure passive return of blood to the heart and proper gas exchange in the lungs. Untrained CPR providers would have a greater success if they could receive instructions quickly on how to proceed and had access to real-time feedback on the effectiveness of the treatment.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,289,850 to Burnes et al. titled “System for Enhanced Cardiac Function with Combined PESP/NES” describes a system where an internal set of sensors are used to determine when cardiac pulse therapy is required for a victim. Although useful for providing feedback for internal medicine, the concepts presented are not applicable to an unexpected emergency situation in a public place, especially when a CPR provider lacks sufficient training.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,960 to Sherman et al. titled “Compression Device with Electro-Stimulation” describes a device that has a chest compression mechanism and one or more sensors providing feedback to the device. The described device addresses consistency of compression but is not useable in an emergency by an untrained CPR provider.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,424,814 to Secunda titled “Perfusion Ratio Detector” teaches a perfusion detector that provides a feedback display which is usable by CPR technician or team. Unfortunately the device also requires training and is not easy to use in an emergency because it requires the technician to remove their attention from the victim to observe the feedback.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2003/0062040 to Lurie et al. titled “Face Mask Ventilation/Perfusion Systems and Method” make further progress in the field by describing a system that can include a headrest and a communication device that allows a CPR provider to obtain instructions from a remote emergency service. However, Lurie fails to provide immediate instruction to a provider.
A preferable CPR system should provide feedback in manner useable by an untrained CPR provider immediately and during CPR and should require a single provider. Thus, there is still a need for providing a system that offers feedback to a CPR provider on the effectiveness of CPR activities as a function of biometric data collected from a victim.